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Cybersecurity in Industrial Scenarios

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Cybersecurity in Industrial Scenarios

This course develops the specialised knowledge and skills required to protect operational environments and critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Students gain a deep understanding of industrial architectures — including SCADA systems, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and Industrial IoT — along with the unique communication protocols and threat landscapes that characterise these environments. The course covers the full spectrum of industrial cybersecurity, from foundational principles such as zero-trust and defence-in-depth through to advanced capabilities including proactive defence, continuous monitoring, and simulation-based training. Regulatory frameworks and standards for essential services are also examined, equipping graduates to design and operate robust security measures at the intersection of cybersecurity, computer science, and industrial operations.

Main Topics
  • Industrial scenarios and smart technologies
  • Cybersecurity threats for industrial scenarios
  • Zero-trust and defence in-depth principles
  • Regulatory frameworks, standards and recommendations
  • Proactive and active defence
  • Industrial perimeter security
  • Simulation for protection, training, and testing

The General Competences that students should have acquired include:

  • Adapting to new application contexts and situations
  • Decision-making by working independently and teamwork
  • Working in an international environment
  • Working in an interdisciplinary environment – cybersecurity + computer science + industrial
  • Thinking out of the box with creative to identify novel/usefulness services and their deployment

The program is structured to integrate contemporary interdisciplinary knowledge with effective and efficient application, aiming to equip students with skills essential for the modern job market in Greece and internationally, thus enhancing their career prospects.

Based on the above, upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:

  • Analyze IT/OT network topologies and implement defence-in-depth (considering regulatory frameworks and standardized recommendations, such as the Purdue model, IEC 62443, among others).
  • Assess and harden industrial-protocol security (e.g. Modbus, DNP3, Profinet, OPC UA).
  • Deploy and tune industrial IDS and passive/active-monitoring solutions without disrupting essential control operations.
  • Understand and conduct safety-critical cyber-incidents and recovery plans.
  • Integrate digital-twin or simulation platforms for proactive vulnerability and patch-impact testing.

The course “Cybersecurity in Industrial Scenarios” develops specific knowledge for a sector that is in high demand in today’s society and presents a set of services, capabilities, and tools necessary for industrial defence and the protection of essential services. This also means that students will learn about: (i) the level of susceptibility of operational environments (e.g., SCADA systems and its main control elements) to determined threats; (ii) the implications of new (and disruptive) information technologies and their convergence in operational environments.; and (iii) and the need to implement security measures, from the consideration of essential services (following the best practices) to the most advanced measures. Therefore, this course covers comprehensive content about industrial security that enables students, upon successful completion of the course, to operate in critical operational scenarios with an understanding of protection and resilience conditions.

 

Upon completion of this course, the students will be able to:

  • Become aware of the existence of new industrial paradigms and their influence on industrial scenarios
  • Understand the main security issues in operational environments and the technological implications
  • Comprehend the spectrum of industrial communication protocols and their main security issues
  • Investigate and analyses threat scenarios 
  • Find out about best practices according to application contexts and the support of regulatory frameworks
  • Design operational networks with minimum security criteria, both in terms of local/device protection and network-level protection
  • Understand the importance of proactivity for active cyber defence, including  threat hunting, situational awareness and cyber threat intelligence, as well as resilience services
  • Configure, implement, and/or adapt new security trends based on disruptive cybersecurity services (e.g., simulation, active monitoring) and/or information technologies (e.g., digital twins, blockchain, IA/ML) etc.)
  • Understand the importance of trust in the new industrial scenarios and the need to address privacy issues

Students will be able to:

  • Lead IT/OT-security programmes ensuring alignment with safety, availability and regulatory constraints.
  • Embed cybersecurity into industrial-control system life cycles.
  • Coordinate active-defence and threat-hunting initiatives within critical-infrastructure environments and against specialised threats.
  • Evaluate supply-chain and third-party risks unique to industrial ecosystems.
  • Advise on convergence of IT/OT security governance and incident-response frameworks.